You can now broadcast live video in Twitter without opening Periscope. Here's how

Twitter wants to make live broadcasting on the app easier by incorporating the Periscope software directly into its own apps.

Twitter’s Periscope was one of the first social media platforms to allow users to create live broadcasts, and has since been followed by Facebook Live and more recently Instagram’s Stories. Periscope was not designed by Twitter; instead the network bought the standalone app and incorporated its technology and team members within its own.

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However, Periscope was always slightly cumbersome to use as it required separate logins and the extra app used up storage. Now it is possible to live stream directly through Twitter which should make the process a more seamless experience.

Kayvon Beykpour, CEO of Periscope said the move was to make it easier for people to broadcast video. “Twitter's already the place where people go to see what's happening. With this update, anyone can now broadcast what's happening live.”

Live broadcasts on Twitter can be retweeted, liked and shared anywhere so other people can see the video, similar to Facebook Live.

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How to #GoLive on Twitter

The live streaming update will be rolling out on Twitter for iOS and Twitter for Android "over the coming days".

Once you receive the update, you can create and Tweet live video from the Twitter app which the company says is "powered by Periscope".

To go live, write a Tweet, tap “LIVE” to go a pre-broadcast screen where you can frame your shot.

When ready, press “Go Live” to start broadcasting. Once you’re live, anyone on Twitter and Periscope can join your live video and when watching a live video, you can comment and send hearts by tapping the screen. Hearts act as likes.

Facebook’s live broadcasting platform launched last year in August 2015. Though it encourages all Facebook users to send live video to their friends and followers, it appears to have only been taken up by brands. A quick look at Facebook’s Live video map shows that take-up in the UK is lukewarm at best, with few Facebook accounts broadcasting their videos live.

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Facebook Live's Map shows the users broadcasting on the platform at the current time

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Instagram recently announced live streaming in its ephemeral Instagram Stories feature. These live broadcasts will be slightly different, though. They only occur in Stories and disappear as soon as they have finished broadcasting. This might have a higher take up than Facebook, due to the more personal nature of Stories compared to a Facebook account.

Now that live streaming is available directly through Twitter’s apps on iOS and Android it will be interesting to see how Periscope is affected by this. Twitter reportedly canned Vine earlier this year in a series of cuts that also saw the platform make nine per cent of its global workforce redundant.